Castle Howard could take paying guests to continue grand project of restoration

Laurence Olivier's elderly Lord Marchmain in Brideshead Revisited died in it and a pair of hot young newlywed aristocrats in Bridgerton made out in it.

- Mark Brown

Now someone with deep pockets may be able to occupy that same 18th-century canopy bed at Castle Howard. In the morning they might take breakfast in a room with Canaletto paintings on the wall and Meissen plates for their toast.

The custodians of a place which is arguably England's grandest, most beautiful country house are considering bringing in high-end hospitality packages next year.

The North Yorkshire house yesterday revealed the results of a major restoration project, five years in the planning, which included updates to rooms, a rehang, a transformation of its long gallery and a fabulous recreation of a tapestry drawing room which was destroyed in a fire in 1940.

The house is already well known from being used in TV and film, including Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon, the 1981 ITV series and the 2008 film Brideshead Revisited and more recently in Netflix's Bridgerton, where characters played by Regé-Jean Page and Phoebe Dynevor turn a fake courtship into a blissful marriage.

It has also been occasionally hired for private hospitality events, such as the wedding reception of the singer Ellie Goulding.